Objective: This study explored medical trainees' understanding of collaborative writing sessions in the Dominican Republic as a strategy to strengthen their technical writing and critical analysis skills in health education and communication. Method: We conducted semi-structured interviews with seven medical trainees who participated in a series…

This My Favorite Assignment (MFA) article features 11 teaching innovations first presented at the 2023 Association for Business Communication Annual International Conference held Denver, Colorado, USA. These assignments are designed to boost students' writing, persuasion, crisis management skills, and personal and professional development.

Social media is riddled with memes (i.e., captioned images intended to convey cultural ideas or beliefs) that often promote maladaptive and unsupported beliefs about human development and parenting. This paper presents a scientific writing assignment designed to help spread accurate information on human development beyond the classroom through…

Nontraditional college students comprise a growing majority of college students with a unique set of needs and some of the highest attrition rates. Collaborative learning practices, such as peer review of writing, have been linked to improvement in students' academic, social, and professional skills necessary in the 21st century, global market.…

Native American students have lower rates of college completion and retention and experience higher rates of trauma exposure. Using focus groups and follow-up interviews, this critical phenomenology sought Native American student perspectives on intention and desired faculty response following self-disclosure of personal challenges in college…

The Middle East Study Tour (MEST) is a capstone elective unit that stands alone as a credit module towards an undergraduate degree. The tour has the dual purposes of exposing students to the Middle East region's political challenges and better illuminating potential career paths for life after university. But is one student's personal discovery…

This research examines academic experiences of African American males (ages 18-25) who attended urban schools in southern California. The participants were incarcerated for at least one year prior to being housed in a pre-release program where they reflected on their academic experiences and perceptions of the school environment. The participants'…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of a service-learning experience on the personal development of college students, particularly focusing on the expression of empathy. Design/methodology/approach: Reflective writing papers were evaluated using a rubric with definitions for three types of understanding, as defined by…

Getting through to students in the classroom continues to be one of the great mysteries of an educator's life. What will capture their attention, and, more important, what will transform their thinking? Film industry veteran and educator Barbara Tobolowsky returned to her roots in visual media to find answers. Using video clips to introduce a…

Explains that rhetorical invention can be viewed as an invitation to openness, whereas structure can be a closure. Describes a writing instruction method in which students write replies to the instructor's weekly letters, providing a genuine need that must be genuinely answered. Argues that rhetoric can enhance and enrich life. (SG)

The use of reflective SEED and I-Search papers in a higher education classroom at North Carolina's Ramseur College has allowed both undergraduate and graduate education students to reflect on their knowledge and experiences, gain meaning from these higher educational experiences, and make connections between their learning and the "real…

A journalist describes her experiences teaching writing skills at a week-long, high school arts and literary festival on the Crow Reservation and discusses how relating her own story stimulated interest and how a range of activities--walks, readings, discussions, observations and short writings on odd-shaped pieces of paper--lead to final…

Describes an undergraduate course project where students helped mentally alert senior citizens write their life stories. By assisting senior citizens to organize memories and interpret life decisions, the students experienced stages they had not yet lived through. Students evaluated the course project as a positive learning and personal growth…

Describes limitations of a Western, individualistic perspective on psychological theory. Summarizes research and theory regarding how personality may be shaped differentially by individualistic and collectivist cultures. Describes strategies for teaching about the impact of culture on personality. (CFR)

This booklet provides practical exploration of the use of narrative in the classroom with students and in teachers' personal and professional development. The various narrative forms are described in boxes throughout the booklet and include letter writing, storytelling, autobiographical accounts and several others. There are four "Your…